Canadian software innovation partnering mission to ITEA PO Days in Finland – September 12-16, 2022

1. Mission objective

This partnering mission is focused on establishing industrial co-innovation opportunities in software-intensive systems and services between Canadian and foreign organizations with the aim of participants partnering in collaborative R&D projects under Eureka's ITEA Cluster.

2. Sector of focus

Software-intensive systems and services with a targeted focus on:

• Smart health
• Smart communities
• Safety and security

Some examples of technology that address current challenges in these areas:

• Digital health: virtual care, hospital optimization, health data management, bioinformatics
• Green ICT: food and agriculture, clean-tech
• Sports: performance enhancement and rehabilitation
• Edtech: online education, learning management, collaboration
• Cybersecurity
• Public safety and emergency preparedness and response

3. Key dates

Deadline to register: July 6, 2022

Deadline to submit expression of interest: July 15, 2022

Notification of results: August 1, 2022

Preparation workshop for selected participants: August 10, 2022 (TBC)

4. Canadian SME eligibility requirements

Canadian SME participants should meet the requirements below in order to be part of this initiative:

• be an incorporated, profit-oriented small or medium-sized enterprise (SME) in Canada
• have 500 or fewer full-time equivalent employees

• pursue growth and profit by developing and commercializing innovative, technology-driven new or improved products, services or processes in Canada
• have a differentiated and protectable technology that could become competitive in global markets

• have sufficient working capital and human resources to undertake a multi-year research and development collaboration and commercialize the results
• be committed to significant growth through international market expansion

Preference may be given to SME applicants who:

• have a minimum of 15 full-time equivalent employees
• have at least $2M CAD in annual revenue
• have commercialized 1 or more products domestically or internationally

NOTE: Canadian SME applicants must be eligible for funding as NRC IRAP clients before they can be considered for funding through this partnering mission and call for proposals. For more information on NRC IRAP eligibility and becoming an NRC IRAP client, please contact NRC IRAP at 1-877-994-4727.

5. Mission description

ITEA PO Days 2022 is a partnering event in conjunction with the second ITEA4 call for proposals. More than 300 organizations from over 40 countries will attend the event, including global industrial leaders like Philips, Atos, Barco, NXP, Esri Canada, Ericsson, Nokia, Bosch, Siemens and others.

ITEA PO Days 2022 provides organizations the opportunity to:

• present and learn about project ideas in a poster session and project pitch sessions
• discuss and work on project ideas in working group sessions
• meet companies and potential partners from all over Europe and beyond
• learn from existing project consortiums and the ITEA Office about the project process, best practices and how organizations can take part

In addition to participating in the ITEA PO Days 2022 partnering event from September 13 to 15, the Canadian mission program will include a pre-ITEA PO Days orientation day on September 12, and an outreach program to visit innovative companies and research organizations in Finland from September 15 to 16 organized by NRC IRAP in collaboration with Global Affairs Canada Trade Commissioner Service and Business Finland.

An online preparation workshop for selected Canadian participants will be held August 10.

6. Background

ITEA is a transnational and industry-driven research, development, and innovation program in software innovation. ITEA is a Eureka cluster program that enables a global and knowledgeable community of large industries, small and medium-sized enterprises, start-ups, academia, and customer organizations to collaborate in funded projects that turn innovative ideas into new business, jobs, economic growth and benefits for society. Once a year, ITEA organizes PO Days to broker collaborations and formulate consortia amongst over 300 participants from over 40 countries.

7. Financial support

Project funding through the National Research Council of Canada Industrial Research Assistance Program (NRC IRAP) will only be available to eligible Canadian SMEs. Other organizations will need to secure funding from other sources or self-fund.

Canadian small and medium‑sized enterprises (SMEs) selected by NRC IRAP for participation in this mission will be invited to apply for up to $3,000 for reimbursement of 75% of travel and accommodations costs associated with the mission. Selected participants will be sent instructions and information about this support.

8. Contact

For more information, contact the NRC IRAP International Office at IRAP.International.PARI@nrc-cnrc.gc.ca or Vance Pan, ITEA National Program Lead for NRC IRAP at Vance.Pan@nrc-cnrc.gc.ca

9. How to apply

Interested candidates for this mission must first register with NRC IRAP by clicking the register button below.
An expression of interest form will be provided to potentially eligible applicants. The expression of interest application form will request additional information about the applicant, organization, technology and co-innovation opportunities of interest.
All participants will also need to register for the ITEA PO Days event directly: ITEA 4 · Registration. There is a participation fee of 150 EUR (VAT excluded, non-refundable). This fee is not included in the financial support.

10. Registration

If there is no register button visible below this line, it means that registration for this partnering mission has closed.